Cataneo, Libro nuovo di fortificare; Dell'arte militare, Brescia, 1567 & 1584, 2 volumes, vellum

CATANEO, GIROLAMO

Four works in two volumes, comprising:

i. Libro nuovo di fortificare, offendere, et difendere. Brescia: (Vincenzo Sabbio for) Tommaso Bozzola, 1567 (1566), woodcut device on title-page, woodcut illustrations (some double-page, 2 also folding)

ii. Avertimenti et essamini intorno a quelle cose che richiede a un bombardiero, cosi circa all'artegliaria, come anco a fuochi arteficiati. Brescia: (Vincenzo Sabbio for) Tommaso Bozzola, 1567, woodcut device on title-page and above colophon, woodcut initials and illustrations, with blank leaf **4

iii. Tavole brevissime per sapere con prestezza quante file vanno a formare una giustissima battaglia. Brescia: (Vincenzo Sabbio for) Tommaso Bozzola, 1567, woodcut device on title-page, woodcut device on title-page, woodcut armorial on verso of title-page, woodcut initials, grid lines for tables printed in red, 2 folding woodcut plates (one double-sided), one plate slightly torn

3 works in one volume, 4to (210 x 145mm.), modern vellum

iv. Dell'arte militare libri cinque. Brescia: Pietro Maria Marchetti (Tommaso Bozzola), 1584, 4to (205 x 148mm.), 5 parts, woodcut device on title-pages, woodcut illustrations (some double-page, 6 folding), 2 folding woodcut plates (one double-sided) in book 1, with blank leaf 3G4, contemporary limp vellum, lacking 4B2_7 and 4D2_7, occasional staining, upper hinge broken

together 2 volumes

Cataneo (or Cattaneo, active 1540-1584) was a military engineer who worked in Brescia and Mantua, and he also helped design parts of the new town of Sabbioneta for Vespasiano Gonzaga. He ran a school in Brescia and was held in high regard by his contemporaries in the field of military architecture (he appears as one of the speakers in his pupil Lanteri's work of 1557; see lot 318 for the 1559 edition).

These works by Cataneo were published in different combinations; the second volume, from 1584, contains five works which were previously published separately.

LITERATURE:

Cockle 771; Edit16 10299, 10298, 10300 & 10310

PROVENANCE:

1st work: Dionisio Moretti, inscription on title-page; 2nd volume: Pietro Corno, inscription on flyleaf